Smoke Clears; N.Y. Firemen Find Six Bodies, ‘Blood Everywhere’

NEW YORK —  Firefighters answering a call made the gruesome discovery Monday of six bodies lying in a blood-soaked apartment in East Harlem. Three of the victims were children, including an 18-month-old found in her crib.

Firefighters battling the morning blaze at the Jefferson Housing project first thought the victims had succumbed to smoke. But as they carried the bodies out, a different picture emerged.

“There was blood everywhere,” said Fire Lt. Ken Schermerhorn. But firefighters did not immediately know that because smoke had filled the second-floor apartment.

It was not until someone broke a window and the smoke cleared that the crime became evident.

“I thought I had been walking in water,” Schermerhorn said of the bloody floor. He called it the worst scene he had encountered in his 20 years of firefighting.

Killed were Maria Rodriguez, 27; her three children, Bill Getz, 11; Jennifer Getz, 5; and 18-month-old Linda Javier; Rodriguez’s mother, Bienvenida Rodriguez, in her 50s, and the elder Rodriguez’s boyfriend, Rafino Lopez, also in his 50s.

The fires, in a couch and a bed, appeared to have been set to cover up the crime, said Sgt. Edelle James, a police spokeswoman.

Police said there were numerous cut and slash marks on some of the bodies and signs of strangulation on several victims. The medical examiner’s office will try to determine the causes of death.

No weapon was recovered. There was no sign of forced entry and the apartment had not been ransacked.